A few years ago, I heard a story from a client that would stick to me up to this day:

For some time, my client and her husband found it hard to conceive a child. So they went to the Holy Land itself, Israel, and lo and behold, a child was conceived! Thus was their firstborn, Laz, dubbed the “miracle baby”. A year later, Party Magic helped the couple, Raul and Laurice, celebrate the miracle of life during Laz’s first birthday.

This was back in 2014.

Fast forward to present, and we’re now celebrating a second miracle, one that goes by the name of Lily:

Much has been said by me about the importance of theme in any birthday party, but while I thoroughly enjoy creating parties with unique themes, I find that I’m absolutely thrilled when I get to work with both great themes andgreat people.

An unexpected stage format: a circular layout with no background walling.

A welcome entrance of flowers and pink fur carpeting greets guests as they enter.

An unexpected but welcome by-product of my profession as an event stylist is that I get to meet people of all flavors. But what struck me when I met Laurice and Raul was their unabashed devotion to their children. I guess as with anything in life, you appreciate something more when you had to work hard to get it in the first place.

I love how the black and white treatment accentuates the emotion of this scene. Great job, Life by Peach Frost!

Lily’s stage was a refreshing change. Instead of the usual rectangular, 8 feet x 20 feet backdrop, we opted for no backdrop at all. Just a circular platform that supports an elegant, white gazebo, framed by circus animals, of course!

Following off in the same vein as my previous post, Aerin: Meet Riverdale’s New Sweetheart, here’s another novel idea for a theme, this time coming from one of the greatest TV cartoons of all time: The Flintstones!

Meet the Flintstones. Can anybody say, “Yabba Dabba Doo!”

Margaux Rocks One in this Truly Unique Party

Part of the allure of designing children’s parties is the sheer breadth of the possible: one week I’m working on a pastel Gems party, and the next I’m designing a birthday centered on an Old Hong Kong theme!

While this is definitely taxing both physically and mentally, one thing’s for sure: it never gets boring in Party Magic.

Especially when you’re working on a theme as rich as The Flintstones! And all the credit goes to Mommy Andrea, for thinking up and suggesting this theme.

Leaves, bones, and beef tenderloin on the ceiling. Just another day in Bedrock!

I’m soo loving how this entrance turned out. The organic balloon arch was mixed with animal dots and stripes to create that “wildlife” / safari feel. Add to that these prehistoric birds and you’ve created a real Stone Age welcome!

THE THEME GENERATOR

If you are a mom planning your child’s birthday party, and you already have a nice venue and a capable stylist, then the only constraint is you imagining up a theme.

Here’s my own technique on how to brainstorm a theme. A theme can be: [Read more…]

While my brother was busy collecting his Marvel and DC comic books, I was happily flipping the pages of my Archie Comics, getting updated on the life of America’s quintessential boy next-door, and the predicament he usually found himself in by being in the middle of Betty and Veronica.

But wouldn’t it be the bee’s knees if you could relive the life and times of Riverdale, but this time as your own character?

I have to give props to Mommy Monette for this fantastic idea. She had her artist draw up Aerin’s own Riverdale avatar so the Party Magic team and I could incorporate her into the Riverdale universe. This caricature doesn’t match up to the real thing, though!

That’s Aerin, all cozied up in Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe, waiting for her strawberry milkshake. Ain’t she lovely!

Massive applause to the whole Dy family too, for getting all dressed up for the occasion. Take a look at toddler Jughead over there!

Aerin and little Jughead, just hanging around in the Chock-lit Shoppe!

THE IMPORTANCE OF PREP-WORK

Most people have the misconception that all the decoration work happens during the actual day of the party. This could not be more wrong. The reality is, styling is 70% prep-work, 30% on-the-day-work. And all prep-work begins with conceptualization, planning, and design.

Much like writing, I believe that in order to properly design a party, you need to know the subject (theme) very well.

Fortunately for me, I knew this subject so much that I didn’t even need to do a single piece of research work!

The stage happens in the corridors of Riverdale High School, where Aerin is campaigning for class president. Her opponent? Archie! I wonder who will win?

Off to stage left we find Betty and Veronica. Their cheerleader uniforms are hung on their lockers:

Jughead is busily handing out flyers to all the students: [Read more…]

If you are like me (that is, a thirty-something Filipino-Chinese), there is a 90% chance that you are intimately familiar with that shopping-mecca / Christmas-holiday-destination, the land known as Hong Kong.

But besides this, Hong Kong represents an ideal: it’s the land of progress, of modernity. It’s inextricably linked to the Motherland, that vast giant called China.

For me, it is also a land that I call my second home, not because I go there every year, but because my father spent his boyhood years growing up in the streets of Mong Kok.

So it was with great welcome when I learned that Mommy Bernice wanted an “Old Hong Kong” theme.

I mostly focused on 90’s Hong Kong, simply because it was the decade that “made my generation”; I was quite the impressionable 10 year-old back in 1997 when Hong Kong was “returned” by the United Kingdom to China.

Old Hong Kong is actually a mishmash of English and Chinese culture, and this is reflected in its crowded buildings and alleyways. I chose to highlight two things for Aislinn’s stage: a.) a “Hong Kong market stall”, the kind you see in the streets peddling various fruits, drinks, toys, and other wares, and b.) the iconic Hong Kong Tramway.

Amidst the pandemonium, various Chinese street signs jut out of Aislinn’s stage

Filling up that market stall was both a real pain (and pleasure; I still can’t decide which!). I had to source old fruit boxes as “risers” to display fruits on, eggs, some plastic toys, paper kites, and various other Chinese beverages, candies, and snacks!

As part of our preparations, the Party Magic team purchased Chinese dried fruits and hung them at the market stall.

The eternal Haw Flakes stacked on top of other Chinese snacks. Brings back those memories!

Again, in every party, the small details matter as much as the large props. This is no less true for a theme such as Old Hong Kong.

Now if you liked the stage, wait til you see the photo op area:

In the course of my over-enthusiasm for this theme, I commissioned our workers to create our very own rickshaw. A little bit much, I know, but after seeing this photo, I don’t regret a single peso I spent in building it.

The photo-op is actually composed of three parts: 1.) the rickshaw, 2.) the fruit vendor, and 3.) the outdoor area. The fruit vendor area, in the middle of the scene, contains a small stool where guests can act as “vendors” and sit down on the streets to peddle their wares:

The outdoor area contains two chairs and a stool where anyone can just sit down, relax, and enjoy a cup of tea:[Read more…]

I’ve known Ery, my client, since we were young kids. And every time I get to work with friends, I am always reminded of how lucky I am.

As I’ve always said, nothing is as fulfilling as providing top-notch quality service to the people you genuinely like and admire.

So when I suggested this particular theme to my friend, it was partly done on a whim, a sort of last-minute idea that flashed before my mind. It also helped that I wanted to do something totally new. In other words, I wanted this event to be extra special for Elise, Ery’s daughter. (we also did the party of Ery’s first, Kenzo!)

After saying it, I thought I may have bitten off more than I could chew.

You see, the theme I’m talking about was abstract, simple in concept, but deceptively hard to execute on a large scale. Add to that the fact that no other stylist (to my knowledge) had ever done a theme like this. This meant that it was all up to me to fill in the “meat”, breathe life into the concept.

Meet the family! Daddy Keef, Mommy Ery, and their kids Kenzo and Elise

RULE NUMBER 1: THERE ARE NO RULES

I mentioned before in this blog that it’s always better to pick a theme that is specific in nature, rather than general. For example, it’s not recommended to do a theme based on simply “clouds”, or “kites”. It’s better if you add more “flavour” or depth into it, by doing for example, Parisian Park, or Snoopy’s street fair.

Then I go ahead and throw my own rules out the window.

So this brings me to my new rule: in event styling, there are no rules. In a world controlled by creatives, rules only last long enough for you or someone else to break them.

What I am proud of from Elise’s Gems party was two new “innovations”: the holographic “shards”, and the felt balloon garland! [Read more…]

What do you do when you want to celebrate God and Jesus in your child’s birthday but at the same time don’t want it to be too serious, boring, or that dreaded term: typical?

At this point in the conversation, the usual suggestion would be made: do a theme based on Noah’s Ark.

My client, Merianne, wanted something different though.

Welcome to Samuel’s Bible Town Party, where we celebrate the miracle of Jesus in our lives.

PARTY MAGIC’S MOST UNIQUE PARTY YET

One particular request my clients, Merianne and Jason had, was to focus on Jesus and the children, something light and happy.

In order to do this, I had our graphics team customize some artwork:

I have to say. Pat, our graphics designer has done some really neat characterizations before, but this one is really something. I love how she drew Jesus with the lovable expression, cuddling sheep!

FOCUSING ON THE SETTING

A technique I love to use in event styling is to “focus on the setting”. What I mean by that is instead of becoming too “literal” in your interpretation of a theme or character, you should look at things from the perspective of the setting: the where and the when. In writing and storytelling, the setting sets the mood and the main backdrop for the story, so why won’t it be the same for styling as well!

What’s inside Joseph’s carpentry shop? Read on to find out!

Here’s what I mean: if you wanted to create a party about Jesus, would you fill your party with Bibles, Holy Crosses, and loaves of bread? Probably not. Instead, you would probably focus on Jerusalem, a vibrant city sprawling with synagogues, souqs (the Arab market or bazaar), and whitewashed stone houses.

In particular, I found the idea of the Arab souq very appealing, which is why the stage focused on this important element in any Middle Eastern city: [Read more…]

If you have a child that’s about 3-7 years old, I’m sure that you’ve had your fill of children birthday parties. You might even consider yourself a birthday party “expert”. The bad part about that is after going to parties week in and week out, things start to get pretty old.

But what if I told you that there’s a different way of structuring your party program, centered around an activity that:

Just this month, Party Magic did a truly unique concept, this time for my client Joanne and her daughter Isabeli. And the big idea is this:

WEEKEND MARKET SHOPPING

At the beginning of the party, all kids will be provided with a “starter” pouch of play money. We designed the play money for Isabeli’s party like this:

Upon entering the party, guests will notice around 4 separate, well-decorated booths that contain various items. For Isabeli’s case, we arranged a:

Toys and Novelty Booth

Pastries and Cakes Booth

Fresh Flowers Booth, and

Fruits and Veggies Booth

During the 1st half of the party, the kids are encouraged to participate in the games, as the prizes that will be given out will be more play money. Yep, that’s right. More play money = more money to spend for toys, pastries, flowers, and fruits!

But let me stop yakking for a minute and show you instead with the sweet highlight reel below, done by no other than the great Lemon Three Films:

THE GOOD THINGS

I can’t tell you enough good things about this activity. For one, there is the anticipation factor. At the beginning, kids (and their mommies) often walk around the booths, taking note of the items they’d like to “purchase”, and doing general scouting and planning. Talk about family bonding time!

Secondly, this is a highly interactive activity that teaches children basic budgeting and math skills in the process. They have fun, and learn in the process!

And third: NO NEED FOR GIVEAWAYS. Because of the amount of goodies kids get to take home, the items they purchase double up as their giveaways already.

CAVEATS

Here’s the caveat: as you might have already guessed, pulling this off requires a LOT MORE work than your usual party. For starters, you have to prepare all the items in your booths beforehand, take note of their inventory. Coordinators / staffs to man each booth need to be hired. Booths need to be set up and prepared.

But if the goal is to create an unforgettable party, isn’t all this work worth it?

Perhaps the real secret is that this is actually not a new activity at all. I conceptualized this type of activity years ago, and have been implementing this to select clientele ever since.

One of the reasons why I love this theme is that it’s close to me personally: I grew up reading Peanuts comics and identifying with Charlie Brown, that nervous, “lovable loser” who fails, but eventually stands up to win the day. To me, he is that perfect archetype of the imperfect person within all of us, and of our constant will to get up and improve ourselves every day.

Now the best thing about event styling is that literally anything is possible. The only limitations are your imagination and your will to execute your vision. For example, at Party Magic, we’ve done over hundreds of parties, and not one of them are alike with any other.

So you might ask, what is possible? Well here’s Party Magic’s lineup of themes for the next few months:

THE FLINTSTONES

RIVERDALE (Archie Comics)

SPRINGFIELD (The Simpsons)

Pair these 3 upcoming parties with Kyle’s Peanuts Party, PLUS with Alex’s Calvin and Hobbes Party, and I think we’ve pretty much covered all the great 90’s cartoon comics / television shows. Oh, except for The Jetsons! Any takers out there? :p

We live in exciting times!

KYLE’S 1ST STREET FAIR

Since Steph my client wanted something more bright, we decided to focus on the concept of having the Peanuts gang do their first market fair during the summer, while the sun is out and the weather amiable. It’s also a perfect day for kite flying!

Here’s our birthday boy Kyle, enjoying his day out in the sun:

Sooo adorable!

In between all the kites and clouds, I also placed hot air balloons with the trademark Charlie Brown stripes!

At the fair, typical Lucy mans her Psychiatric Help Booth, waiting for her patients:

This booth is so iconic of Lucy; it’s a parody of the classic lemonade stand done by American children:

What’s so funny is that Lucy dispenses useless advice to Charlie every time!

Linus in the meantime, is busy at his Pumpkin Pie Booth. There’s some significance here, given that Linus is a devout believer of The Great Pumpkin (this time around, it’s Charles Schulz parodying the idea of Santa Claus)!

A few weeks back, something curious happened: this blog was viewed for the millionth time.

Considering how this all started, that number is mind-blowing (at least to me).

You see, way back when I was still starting Party Magic, I had this idea. I realized that the kiddie party / event styling industry was so opaque that new moms (like myself back then) feel lost and adrift planning their child’s first party. Questions abound. What’s a good theme? Which suppliers should I get? What’s the total cost of a party??

So I set about to share with everyone the things I’ve learned in my journey as an event stylist. My sort of private “journal”, made public to be shared for all. This journal also shared the latest parties I’ve styled, of course!

My initial concept sketch for Jarrett’s birthday

A million views and hundreds of parties later, and here we are.

I am so grateful.

What’s the next stop from here? Whatever it is, I’m sure I’ll reach it as long as I’m still having fun.

JARRETT AYRTON: A TRULY UNIQUE PARTY

My next foray into the Truly Unique Series is one that is otherworldly (you’ll get my pun as you read on ;p).

It all started with a sort of “blanket mandate” from my client, Jo: she wanted Jarrett’s party to be “clean”, “unique”, and with a blue-white-silver theme. Jo was also interested in the space/cosmic theme, but really wanted to veer away from the typically dark look of these parties.

My concept was this: why don’t we do a sort of cosmic theme, but this time with a splash of romantic, watercolor blue?

I sort of wanted to recreate what I did for Hailey’s Dreamy White Celebration, only this time, for a boy. The photo above is the initial concept sketch I made for Jarrett.

Because the venue was Greenhills West clubhouse, I knew that the function room itself was inherently light and airy, mostly because of its high ceiling and white walls. To further enhance that, I decided to fully drape the ceiling with all-white cloth, then supplement it with white, silver, and grey hangings. Super love how it turned out. The focal point of the whole ceiling is the gigantic moon floating in the center!

But really, hats off to the team at Little Heartbeat. I mean, look at the angles on these photos!

If I had to choose one thing to focus on in a party which would have the largest impact, it would be the color palette.

I’ve seen countless events that have great production value, but are lacking in the color department. Having a well-defined, planned-out color board will give your party that refined, “instagrammable look”. A palatable visual feast.

For example, I love how the whites, silvers, and greys simply blended well together. This provided a very well “put together” look for the whole venue. But another purpose having the white-silver-grey combination blend together is that this light-color combination made the blues and blacks much much more appealing and stark:

On the stage, I used a “bursting” organic balloon arch that wrapped itself on the borders of the stage, falling down left and right into huge puddles of whites, greys, and silvers. But what I love most about this organic arch are those specialized black balloons with that sort of “marble” texture to them. Kind of reminds me of a black hole, or a dark planet!

Moreover, because the bordering is made up mostly of light colored items, it made the blue hues in the main backdrop stand out.

Now look at the dessert table above. Notice what stands out? It’s the blacks of course! Again, it’s that refined look that I’m after.

For the photo-op, I stuck with that clean look, and added various light-hued planets in the backdrop:[Read more…]

Mercenaries are driven by paranoia; missionaries are driven by passion. Mercenaries are bosses of wolf packs; missionaries are mentors or coaches of teams. Mercenaries are motivated by the lust for making money; missionaries, while recognizing the importance of money, are fundamentally driven by the desire to make meaning. – John Doerr

There are two types of people in this world: the mercenary and the missionary. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s to do things that transcend the mere purpose of making money. In other words, the missionary beats the crap out of the mercenary, day in, day out, 24 / 7.

I think people have this innate ability to sort out in their minds, the mercenaries (those who are just out to get your money), from the missionaries (those who strive to create meaning).

At Party Magic, I’m striving to create a team of missionaries, because that’s what I am.

And in the missionary mindset, we don’t just “set up a party”. We create art.

If you are looking for a dreamy, ambient birthday party, you can’t go wrong with Sophie’s theme. My client, mommy Kim, specifically requested a “watercolor animals” theme, and we delivered it like this:

The trickiest part of the stage is achieving that soft, brush-like effect on the animals. For those who might wonder, these animals weren’t printed out. They were literally hand-painted. This is true for ALL the animals you see on the stage:

Choosing to do something like this, hand-painting our characters on the stage vs. simply printing them out, might not really make sense economically as hand-painting can be tedious, time-consuming, and labor intensive.

But how we do something is as important as the end result. And, you might not notice the difference looking at these photos, but in person, and up close, these animals look much more…genuine. Genuinely artistic!

With styling you are always teetering between “minimalist” and “too many things”. Personally, my style is a little bit of both, but not too much of either. Make it too minimalist and your party turns bare; put in a lot of things and it will turn crowded. I think I got the mix just right with this one.

The first time I was attracted to the arts was in the backroom of my mom’s office.

I was around 5 or 6 years old, and back then, my mom was releasing new products (for kids) almost every week. There were no cellphones, no computers, no Photoshop, so my parents had set aside a room called the “Artist’s Room”, where 4-5 skilled designers sat on a large table, drawing everything by hand. I was hooked. My earliest memories inside that room was when I asked one of the senior artists if he could teach me how to draw a face. Instead of drawing the usual “dot” for the eyes, I learned how to create a more complex representation, drawing the iris, the pupil, and overlaying it all in an almond-shaped outline.

My mom once told me, if you’re creative and learn a skill, you will never go hungry in your life.

This is why in spite of the tough, tough retail landscape, I have nothing but utter admiration for Sunnies, the brand that managed to captivate the heart and mind of the quintessential Millennial.

And who do we thank for that? It’s, of course, no one else but the artisan:

Martine Cajucom, Sunnies Studios Creative Director

And so I was super thrilled when I found out that I landed a commission (however small a part) to style the launch of Sunnies Specs Kids!

The display shelf in the images above are just spot-on in terms of branding. Designed by Martine, and produced by Janna (Pabys Creates Events).

THE ORGANIC BALLOON ARRANGEMENT AS ART

Although I usually shy away from corporate events, this one was right up my alley. Sunnies asked us to create various balloon arches inside Sunnies Cafe in BGC to bring out that playful, whimsical feel:

View from above: an organic balloon “cloud” wisping along the ceiling

Another reason I like doing organic balloon arches is because their irregular shape allows for very interesting camera angles:

If Lemon Three Films has been my go-to videographer for the past 4 years, it’s with good reason. Simply put, I believe that they come up with the best artistic video material for children’s parties, day in, day out.

Now if you’re a mom researching for your kid’s upcoming party, here’s what you wouldn’t know by just googling Lemon Three:

Lemon Three Films prizes, above all, story. Stories have always been the core of how humans communicate (for practical reasons, stories are easier to remember and pass on than just facts), that magical ingredient that makes videos come alive.

Possibly more than story, Lemon Three Films value heart. Rak, the driving force behind Lemon Three, has been known to dismantle whole edited videos simply because it has story but no heart. Redoing a whole video is better than coming up with sub-par work.

Which makes Anya’s video above even more impressive, because it’s actually an SDE (same-day-edit).

So let’s all join me in saying, hip-hip…HOORAY! For Rak and the Lemon Three Films team! For he’s a jolly good fellow…

Welcome To My World!

I'm Michelle, mother of the 2 sweetest girls in the world, Sofia and Chloe. I'm an event stylist and owner of the boutique styling shop, Party Magic. I love doing crafts, design, cooking, and anything that has anything to do with beauty and art.